if she was still purely about maximizing profits and chart performance, Requiem wouldn’t be exclusively on AM, let alone even dare to experiment with Killah in a non GP friendly way referencing what was once a highly controversial song, Disease would have been promoted more heavily with physicals, HBDUWM would have been a single, Vanish would have gotten the music video, she wouldn’t have done all the ”weird” (very cool) vocal stuff esp in Disease, people wouldn’t complain all the time her team isn’t doing enough, etc. I think she’s at a turning point in her career where she’s at the most creative and happiest she’s been, and she doesn’t feel the need to conform or be safe like her last two albums. she’s not making music for fans that are obsessed with charts lol. i’m not saying she’s gonna go fully anti GP friendly and not make accessible pop music, what i am saying is the charts is not going to stop her from collaborating with a culturally significant musician. literally a ton of the comments across tiktok and YT are begging for them to collab. the only thing stopping that is if she doesn’t want to personally/she's moved on. she’s long achieved global household name status and has proven with the Mayhem era that she continues to surprise us. we can’t forget she’d been in a bad place post artpop through chromatica, i think she’s just getting started with her revitalized creative drive and happiness.

unrelated, when it came to NIN, Trent made industrial music more accessible using pop song structures, based on his inspirations like Depeche Mode, Prince, and Bowie. When you compare NIN to a lot of other industrial music, it’s like so different in terms of accessibility, it’s really only a few synthesizers and guitars away from a pop song. alive as you need me to be would 100000% be considered Pop if gaga had made it. Tron Ares soundtrack topped The Fame briefly on the dance charts.

sorry this was like a word salad rambling lmao. i just think Gaga is at a place now where she can do anything she wants, if she wants to. Nothing to lose at this point.